The present application relates to improvements on current designs for rigid folded products such as game boards, maps and charts.
For many years road maps have been printed on paper which is prefolded into a package of convenient size and shape. Typically such folded packages have been rectangular. In the past several years, laminated maps have been developed which have employed a series of rectangular panels joined together in a side-by-side array, but which are foldable into a rectangular package. Such maps have typically folded into a rectangular package which is substantially greater in size (in plan view) than most folded paper maps distributed in the United States. Further, because of the limitations of their design, available folded laminated maps open to a size which is very much smaller than the size of a typical paper map. That severely limits the size of the area to be displayed, or if not the size, then the scale of the area depicted. That means that the opportunity to display details is hampered. Furthermore, available multi-panel laminated maps, by their construction, are long and narrow.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,063,227 and 5,868,429, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference, describe multiple fold laminated products and a method of making such a product. Folding products according to these patents, have multiple, spaced apart rectangular panels which are arrayed in both horizontal rows and vertical columns. Each panel is made up of a central, relatively stiff, paperboard sheet having upper and lower display surfaces and waterproof, transparent upper and lower outer laminating sheets joining all of the sheets into an integrated product. The upper and lower outer sheets are each integral sheets which extend across the paperboard sheets and across the spaces between them. The panels may display selected intelligence, such as maps, words, graphics, and the like. One limitation of the product that the gaps between the panels result in gaps in the map when it is unfolded and viewed. These gaps remove portions of the printed image, limit the size of the maps, are unsightly and distort the accuracy of the product.
Alternatively, it is known to use a larger sheet of paperboard in lieu of the array of smaller rectangular panels that are employed in the aforementioned patents. In such a design, selected intelligence is printed on one or both sides of the paperboard the paperboard is printed with the desired intelligence. Diecut channels are formed in the board at the locations where the folds are to occur. The printed, diecut paperboard is then laminated on both sides with transparent laminating sheets. An example of this type of construction is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,273,432, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. This design results problems similar to those described above in connection with the 227 and 429 patents. Namely, the diecut channels in printed paperboard leave gaps in the map (or other intelligence that is printed on the board). As the map gets larger in size it requires more folds and, as a result, the diecut gaps need to be more frequent and wider. The diecut gaps remove portions of the printed image, limit the size of the maps, are unsightly and distort the accuracy of the product.